This year's QRPTTF will be a fun one. Tom Johnson, KQ6DV, his wife Bobbie, KF6AYH, my daughter Marissa, her friend Claire, and I will be hiking to Lane Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California.The Hike will begin at Big Basin State Park, and proceed north 6 miles to a ridge top at 2280 feet. It is the highest ridge in the area and should provide good clear sky in all directions.
In an effort to scope out the site and test our readiness, we decided to hike to the camp and check it out. We left the ranger station at 12:00 noon.
Here is Marissa and I taking a break along the way. There were streams and waterfalls everywhere. Water won't be a problem.
Marissa and Claire at a stream crossing.
The trail is beautiful. Here we climb above the redwoods into Manzanita and Oaks.
Here is Lane Trail Camp where we will be setting up our station for QRPTTF.
One of the permanent residents came by to check us out.
I will be using a K2 with an internal battery pack, a z-match tuner and 100 foot center feed flat top fed with 300 ohm TV ribbon. I will be maintaining the battery with a 5W solar panel. Tom will be using an SW40+ and a resonant dipole on 40.
Hope to work you all next weekend.The hike out should be easy, mostly downhill. As the sun had ducked behind the hills, we decided on a short cut. A 0.3 mile jaunt to a fire road that would cut our return time down. It was 0.3 mile of trail and about 500 feet of elevation change, you guessed it....up. We reached the car at about 6:30pm. All tired but in good shape and ready for next weeks trek.
Hope to work you all next weekend.
72 de Jeff AC6KW